Canon Comic Review: Star Wars "The Scourging of Shu-Torun" Arc (Issues #62-67)

Kieron Gillen’s explosive (literally!) final arc showcases the Rebellion on the offensive. Leia mobilizes Rebel, actor, and Partisan alike to pay Shu-Torun – and Queen Trios – a visit in The Scourging of Shu-Torun!

-Spoiler Review-

After 36 issues, Jason Aaron handed the reins of the flagship Star Wars title to former Darth Vader and Doctor Aphra author Kieron Gillen. One thing I appreciated about Gillen’s run on the series is that it all built on the previous arc, connected a bit more tightly than Aaron’s arcs were. Gillen’s opening arc, The Ashes of Jedha, brought our core heroes, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo, to Jedha where they enlisted the help of what remained of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. (Though, not all of the Partisans were on Jedha – while the heroes were on Jedha, Inferno Squad was infiltrating another surviving group of Partisans, the Dreamers.) On Jedha, Queen Trios seemingly pledges allegiance to the Rebellion, offering to help Leia create a fleet with Shu-Torun supplies. After enlisting their help, Leia and the Rebels gain a fleet with the aide of the newly liberated Mon Calamari. Unfortunately, Trios’ offer of help was not genuine, and she shuts down the Rebel Fleet and gives Vader a chance to wreak havoc on the Alliance’s ships. As Rebel leader after leader perish, Leia and other survivors mount a desperate mission to open an escape route. Leia, Han, Luke, Sana Starros, and the droids escape on the Volt Cobra, but are marooned on Hubin, where they spend a few months. During these months, Leia plans an attack on Shu-Torun, which is where this arc opens…

Despite reluctance on the part of Alliance leadership (what remains of it, anyway), Leia convinces the Rebellion that attacking Shu-Torun poses a military advantage that might possibly turn the tide of the war. Good thing, too, as we learn in other sources that the Rebellion is on a full-fledged retreat, later dubbed the Mid-Rim Retreat. Shu-Torun is one of the Empire’s leading suppliers of materials and ships, so shutting down their production would beset their fleet with many problems. Leia calls up Benthic Two-Tubes, whose trust she gained on Jedha, and actor/shape-shifter/entertainer-extraordinaire, Tunga the Clawdite to help her get to Trios and shut down her mining operation. I was worried that this arc would bring Leia to far too dark of a place – being the daughter of Darth Vader, we know how dangerous it is for their family to get angry. Without a mentor to reign in her anger (and her growing ability to use the Force, usually accidentally), Leia could easily run the risk of turning to the darkness. Thankfully, Gillen manages to create a sympathetic Leia in that she does want revenge, but doesn’t feel the need to escalate the conflict much more than necessary.

As you might have guessed, though, not everybody is on board with Leia’s plans. The Partisans especially want to see the Empire burn for what the Death Star did to Jedha a year ago. A drill runs through the core of Jedha, controlling the mining and production of the entire planet. Leia merely wants to shut it down; the Partisans want to blow the entire planet to dust. Their goal? Instead of merely destroying the drill, they want to overload it so it blows the planet in two. As the Rebels, Partisans, and actor touch down on Shu-Torun, Luke, R2, and the Partisans go to dismantle the drill as Leia, Han, Meorti (the engineer from Hope Dies), and Tunga infiltrate Trios’s lair. The Partisans convince R2 to overload the system (with what Anakin might call aggressive negotiations), sending the Rebels on a crash course toward becoming just as bad as the Empire. The whole arc deals with the question of the morality of revenge and asks how far is too far? Readers of the canon are familiar with the tensions between the Alliance proper and the Partisans, and are familiar with the extreme means they take to meet the end of the Empire, so we’re not altogether too surprised by their ferocity here. Unfortunately, Leia is, and she is shocked by how far they were willing to go. In the final issue of the arc, Leia convinces the Partisans to back off a bit and accept that there are far less violent means by which the Empire can be fought. I was a bit disappointed by how easily they were talked off the ledge, but I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of the Partisan groups.

I want to, briefly, cover a few more disappointments in this arc before moving on to the highlights. This is a drum I’ve beat since Gillen took over the flagship title, I know, but the pacing on this arc was just about as slow as the previous few arcs. I would have enjoyed this arc immensely as a trade, but waiting for the story to unfold piecemeal was a bit excruciating. I only point this out because Gillen’s pacing on Vader and Aphra didn’t feel quite as slow. This arc also ended a bit abruptly, as it only had one issue to complete the Scourge, talk the Partisans down, and find a way to best, or at least escape, General Konchar’s orbital bombardment. (More on this later.) Finally, I feel like Gillen failed to do the same exact thing Aaron failed to do: create a fully well-rounded side cast that could join alongside Luke, Leia, and Han as regular characters. Sure, we saw Sana and Meorti in the arc, but they didn’t really feel like they were part of the core cast, simply people who happened to also be on the mission. If this series wants to hold my interest when Pak takes over, he’ll have to add a few characters to the cast as it moves into The Empire Strikes Back territory.

Enough about what I didn’t like. Let’s talk about what I did like, and one of Gillen’s strongest contributions to the canon in general: Queen Trios. Introduced far back in the first Darth Vader Annual, Queen Trios was an immediate fan favorite. She’s not Gillen’s best creation, nor the site’s favorite comic character, as both of those titles belong to Aphra, but she became a worthy villain in her own right. Thankfully, her turn to the Rebellion was brief, and she stayed a villain for the rest of her life. Having a character move between the two books was inspired, and helped bring the stories together in a really cool way. Even more, though, the emotional connection (whether good or strained) between Leia and Trios creates an emotional undercurrent for Gillen’s run, bringing a new dimension to the story that was missing in Aaron’s run. (Though, since we’re only discussing a single arc here, I won’t go too deep here – keep an eye out for our Gillen retrospective in the near future!) Unfortunately, Trios was killed in a duel with Leia, cutting her life short. While her death scene was moving, where I genuinely felt for a villain, I was a bit disappointed that she met her end so early! I would have loved to see her become a recurring villain for the Rebels. As another bummer, her death happened in the penultimate issue of the arc, as Konchar was really the major villain in the arc. Konchar is far less of an exciting or compelling villain, so the spotlight really should have remained on Trios.

Finally, I would be remiss to not talk about the art team. The pencils and inks on the arc were done by the brilliant Angel Unzueta (who you may remember from the Poe Dameron run), with coloring by Guru-eFx. I’m not always sold on the way humans are colored in this arc (Guru-eFx has colored Larroca for a while, as well, which exacerbated certain issues…), but the colors on this arc were done beautifully. The use of colors for the lava and a few scenes with a ray shield are beautifully done. I want to circle back a bit to Angel Unzeuta’s art. There are a lot of pros and cons to realistic art on movie characters (that is, should Luke Skywalker always look exactly like Mark Hamill, or can the artist take a little artistic liberty with their portrayals of the characters?), and Angel leans toward the ultra-realistic side. He also traces a few movie stills, which are just as obvious as they were with the previous artist. I would love this series to slow down and ship once a month if it gives the artists breathing room and allow them to stop tracing. But for the most part, I love Angel’s art and would love to see him stick around for more comics! The letters were done by Clayton Cowles, who had the task of writing the alien script for Benthic, which gave a great sense of foreignness to the Partisans. (Having different scripts for Benthic showed just how alien he was to the Rebels, both in speech and in actions.) The covers were beautiful, despite not really reflecting the contents of the issue, and were done by Gerald Parel.

That being said, this arc was fairly well done, despite being slow and putting the focus on the wrong person (focusing on anybody BUT Trios, that is). We’ll have a review of Gillen’s entire run in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out! There’s a lot more to explore about the way that this arc, and his whole run, was handled, so keep an eye out for those discussions soon!

*The SCAR Squadron was also wasted in this arc. Though they discovered Leia’s plans to attack Shu-Torun in the previous arc, the only time we see them in this arc is when they report this news to Konchar. Both Ryan and I have lamented how wasted these characters were, and they continue to be wasted. I’m not entirely sure why they were saved from death in the Storms of Crait if they were going to remain so vastly under-utilized.

You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!

Star Wars Comic Reviews
Ashes of Jedha | Mutiny at Mon Cala | Hope Dies | The Escape | The Scourging of Shu-Torun (individual reviews by Ryan): #62 | #63 | #64 | #65 | #66| #67 | Kieron Gillen Retrospective

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi

The Rise of the Sith: Darth Plagueis | Maul: Lockdown | Cloak of Deception | Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter | The Phantom Menace

Menace Revealed: Rogue Planet | Outbound Flight | The Approaching Storm | Attack of the Clones

The New Jedi Order Era: Star Wars #108 | Scourge

Canon Novel Reviews:
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars Young Reader Reviews:
Adventures in Wild Space: The Escape (Prelude)
So You Want to be a Jedi?
Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
Poe Dameron: Flight Log
Rebel Dossier
Princess Leia: Royal Rebel (Backstories)
Darth Vader: Sith Lord (Backstories)
The Force Awakens: Finn’s Story
Forces of Destiny:
Daring Adventures vol 1 | Daring Adventures vol 2 | Tales of Hope & Courage | Leia Chronicles

Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide

Canon Comic Review: Star Wars “The Scourging of Shu-Torun” Arc (Issues #62-67)

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